Fun with Wouxun Ham Radios

[Mister Skin]

Hey HB,

Theoretically you could receive out of the bands if you could pull a software mod that would do it. It only seems that you will get from 137-180ish, then 400 to 500ish, depending on what Wouxun you have and what export configurations it has.

You would also need a proper antenna to receive the frequencies you wanted to listen to. Considering that an antenna is just a piece of wire tuned to the desired frequency, you'd just want to have it cut to the right size to match the band.

I also own a Kenwood TH-F6A which has amazing receive capabilities and can also receive AM, Wide FM, SSB and CW. You can listen to everything from DC to Daylight essentially, but you won't hear much on SW bands unless you use an external wire antenna or are listening to nearby stations....

[Legion303]

So after field-testing the KG-UVD1P, I have to say it was great. Reached everyone in the Rio with a generic stubby antenna just fine, and it worked very well car-to-car on the drive back with the stock whip antenna, not quite line-of-sight distances. Though to be fair, I don't know what the other guys were broadcasting power-wise with their Motorolas; as far as I know they were picking me up fine from 1-2 miles at my 5W xmit. Battery life was easily an entire day with the stock 1700mAH one. This radio's a keeper.

[Mister Skin]

So after field-testing the KG-UVD1P, I have to say it was great. Reached everyone in the Rio with a generic stubby antenna just fine, and it worked very well car-to-car on the drive back with the stock whip antenna, not quite line-of-sight distances. Though to be fair, I don't know what the other guys were broadcasting power-wise with their Motorolas; as far as I know they were picking me up fine from 1-2 miles at my 5W xmit. Battery life was easily an entire day with the stock 1700mAH one. This radio's a keeper.

Glad you liked it. The radio is a keeper if not on price and performance ALONE. The Motorola Saber/Spirit/Radius HTs run 4-5 watts, same with the GP340 and that particular series. Mobiles will be 25-50 watts, and if its one of those big head-unit jobs, those are a whopping 100 watts...

I really like Motorola radios, but their downside is their price and the fact that most of them have to be programmed via PC with an expensive cable. Luckily, I know someone for that if I pick up a newer Moto HT, but I have an HT1000 backup rig that was already pre-prog'd for all my local needs.

Looks like Wouxun is also releasing their mobile multiband soon, if they haven't already...(coughicomclonecough)

[AmishGangsta]

Thanks for the informative reply, pretty much what I figured.  Of course, transmitting on any frequency I'm not licensed to is illegal so it was more of a theoretical question.  What do you think about rx on frequencies outside of 2m/70cm, could the radios physically do it?

If you're interested in Rx only, you could pick up a used Yupiteru MVT-7100 for about the same amount as I'm seeing these radios and have uninterrupted coverage from 530khz-1650mhz in AM, Narrow/Wide FM & Upper/Lower side-band.

[Arox!]

I just picked up a beofeng UV-5R it is pretty good for the price ($43 on amazon shipped) , I have not been able to pick up any drive thru's but I have become more interested in radios as a result. I'm from the Chicago area so maybe when I get my licence I can key up with some of you guys.